ORIGIN

Northwest Classic Rally – Day 2: Back in the Hunt

If you saw yesterday’s report on our troubles during Day 1 of the Northwest Classic Rally, you’ll know that we had a battery issue in the car that caused us some delays and headaches. We are happy to report that today was quite a different story, with the BOSS 302 running strong and the repairs we made yesterday holding up throughout today’s timed and transit stages. Combine that with the weather cooling down a bit and some incredible mountain passes, lakes, and rolling farm roads, and it all made for a terrific day.

Check out our photos below, then sign up here for updates on the event so that you can join us next year!

We saw quite a bit of the blue Alfa Giulietta Sprint Veloce today. Those cars look great on skinny tires with hubcaps, and the driver/navigator seemed like they meant business. They had 40 seconds fewer penalties than us on the first day, but we think we might have evened that today. Satch Carlson commented on yesterday’s report and mentioned that competitors can’t wait to get their hands on the score sheets. Its true! We’ll be first in line.

Right out of the gate we headed out to the flatter farm country where we passed through several wooden covered bridges. We had no idea that these were scattered around this area.

Then the route took us across the Willamette Valley, where we climbed this 40+ mile river road. It had us chasing and passing several cars in the non-timed sections after stopping for photo opportunities. The Citroen DS below was fun to watch as it leaned through the corners. These guys come from a long line of Citroen owners, and shared some great French car stories over lunch today.

Endless pine trees, a rushing river, an empty forrest road, and a BOSS 302. It works! We thought that our car might have been too large and heavy given some of the tighter routes, but we were pleasantly surprised. Our ’65 shelby clone fastback from years ago would have been dragging its exhaust on every dip or crowned road surface, but this equally lowered ’70 did not bottom out once one this event. A stock BOSS 302 might have been a hand-full, but the upgraded 4-wheel Wilwood disk brakes, 5-speed transmission, and power rack-and-pinion steering in our car made quick work of everything we threw at it.

In the photo below, you can see the empty road rolling across the farm fields before turning 90 degrees at the top of a bluff for a descent down the other side. These roads were wonderful, and a real roller-coaster ride.

Here is the look down the other side of the same hill but out through the windshield. Even though we were only one minute apart, we never saw any other cars on this section, only farming combines. If this was the similar terrain of Marin County, it would be full of bicycles, seven days a week.

Back at the hotel, the cars were lined up after a hard day’s work. Events like this in an open car take it to the next level, with wind and glare and other factors causing additional challenges for the navigator. That stuff doesn’t shake-up the pros, but it would us!

The finish line was a relief for all, and these two BMW E9 coupes came across together. Two very full days of rallying were in the books. We never met the couple in the silver car, but the husband/wife pair in the orange CSL were super cool. They told us tales of running that car in the Three Castles Trial in Wales, UK on several occasions.

We had only a few moments of route or time panic, and our times were right where we wanted them apart from one mysterious delay. Race and rally legend Denise McCluggage was the speaker at dinner tonight, and she said that the most fun part of rallying is getting behind early and then having to catch up. After being down the first day and coming back strong today, we’d say that her words are an analogy for our entire event.

Check out the full Flickr album here, as well as the slide-show below. Thanks for the great comments and support along the way! We can’t wait to report our full results after we receive them tomorrow, and share our lessons learned.